Today is a bit of a different What’s Blooming post.  My garden club (which meets once a month) met today at the home of someone who sells cut flower bouquets at farmer’s markets.  They actually just moved into this property 6 months ago and have already done a ton to it to get it ready for the season.  It’s a giant property.  I was totally jealous.

Here is a view of part of the cutting beds:

She just grows long rows of flowers for cutting.  Just to the left of these beds by the shade is the Battenkill river.

I about died from jealousy LOL.  What a great thing  to have at the end of your yard.  The house actually sits up quite high, so it is high above this.

These are all brand new beds and look really good for being so new.   Doesn’t it just look hot? We were back up to 90 degrees and I thought I might burst into flame, so I headed back to that shady river.

She grows a lot of zinnias and says that they are her big money maker.  The buds are really cool looking.

These are the buckets of flowers that they had cut this morning to make bouquets with.  This gray flower is call Ammi.  It is the gardener’s version of Queen Anne’s Lace.  It doesn’t lose all the little petals like QAL does – and looks a little fuller.

Mostly zinnias.

She talked about how to arrange flowers in vases.  Start with tall backbone greens like ferns or tall stiff flowers.  Then do a mid layer, then tuck in the smaller accent flowers.  Use the flowers in sets of 3 or an odd number for a better look.  She did these so fast!  This vase took 5 minutes.

So pretty.  I rarely bring in any flowers from my garden inside because I don’t want to cut into my plants!  I like to sit on the porch and look at them.

Here’s another fun tip – if you have a vase of tulips, add a shot of vodka to the water.  Apparently this really helps the tulips last longer!

Sigh…. I need more property.  Back to my little garden.

Here is my nicotiana:

I don’t know if these are *ever* going to do anything.  They should be taller and blooming by now.  Guess that was a garden fail – but, could end with a nice fall show.

I am officially declaring love for sweet potato vines.

These have been fun to look at this year.  See how we need to paint the porch?  My August goal.  When it gets cooler…

My sedum is in full “broccoli” mode now.

It’s even starting to turn color a bit.

It’s going to be a hot weekend.  It’s also John’s birthday on Saturday and he gets to be king for a day!

Stay cool!

Another Blooming Day has rolled around.  And what a gorgeous day, too.  We had lows last night at 40.  Not quite a freeze, but pretty darn cold.  I had brought in my seedlings just in case.

My garden is kind of just at the green stage right now.  I need to think about mid spring blooms after the tulips fade.

Anyway, lots of spiderwort coming up.  This stuff is pretty invasive, too.  It migrates.

I have more lily of the valley.  It is on the south side of the house and the north side.  The south side gets the sun and the plants flower early.  On the north side in full shade, the LOTV bloom a couple weeks later.  Hooray for extended bloom time!

I also lost some of my ferns from this funky winter, but one kind came up.

I got my hanging baskets together.  This is the purple allysum with flowering tobacco.  I am hoping hummingbirds come to the flowering tobacco.

(Excuse the porch – we are repainting it currently).  This will fill out nicely in a few weeks.  I have 3 of these hanging on the front porch.

This is the gerbera daisy with the sweet potato vines.

This will be an interesting combo.  I have heard the sweet potato vines can get really long.

I have 2 pots like this.

These pots sit at the top of the front steps.  I have 3 more big containers on the back porch that I need to get plants for, so maybe more green house shopping in my very near future!

We just got back from dinner with my folks. Today is my dad’s 71st birthday.   We have a warm weekend coming up and I get to meet another blogger this weekend!

Happy Friday! I am glad the weekend is here, aren’t you? We had thunderstorms roll in around around 4 a.m., which kept me up for a while and then I didn’t wake up until almost 8 o’clock! That is super late for me.

I decided on Friday oats banana custard style.

Topped with coconut butter. These are a little more liquid than normal because I used 30 grams of oats instead of 40, but the same amount of egg whites.

I just could not get into work today.  It was not a productive morning and I made the executive decision to take some time off after lunch.  Speaking of lunch, I made up a 1-minute pumpkin muffin topped with peanut flour and blueberry jam.

Quick and tasty.

I headed out to do a little shopping.  Helen inspired me with her closet cleaning and shopping trip.  I went to one of my favorite places:

I got a pair of jeans for $6!  Score! This place lowers the price on items every 2 weeks, so sometimes you can get real bargains, particularly with pants since they have so many.  I was actually hoping to get more things, but nothing else really struck me as a have-to-have item.

I stopped for a treat on the way home as John requested something.  I went to Chocolate mill to get a cranberry pecan scone and a maple twist, which we split so we could each try one.

(not sure why I am pointing at the maple twist)

This went really well with my latte!

The garden still has some color in it.  I have some long bloomers in there.  It was rainy today, so today’s shots are a bit gray.  The mums are all out in force now.

This mum is all stunted and I don’t know why.  I think Japanese beetles got to it earlier in the spring and it just didn’t  recover very well.

My burning bush is turning now. Gaillardas in front:

A new coneflower bloom.

I have a stray spiderwort that appeared and now has a bloom on it.

New buds on the knockout rose.  Crazy plant!

I just really liked the raindrops on this:

Another scentimental bloom as well.  I had to hold it up because it was drooping from the rain.

Some of our fall decorations:

My milkshake coneflower has a bunch of buds on it.  If we don’t get a freeze in the next week or so, they might actually bloom!  It’s been a very mild fall so far except for a couple days.  And lots of rain.  Too much rain!  We really don’t need any more.

Time for dinner! I cooked up some chicken thighs and broccoli while John cut up a pineapple.  My plate.

John’s plate had pineapple, chicken and potato chips 😀

I think it’s movie night tonight and a low-key weekend on tap.

Pink item of the day? My work shoes!

Friday!  I woke up with no ill effects from the attempted blood donation yesterday. No bruise, surprisingly.  My arm is sore, but no bruise. There is a weird little tingly sensation down my arm when I rub it, though.  That is weird.  We had frost last night.  Brrrr!  I decide to put off the daily walk until evening.  Instead, I commenced to breakfast.  Here is something different:

2 of the ricotta puffs with apple cranberry topping. This was warm and filling.

I got right to work and rocked out today!  Yay!  Pixie was off and on my lap all day because it is cold.  Here she is on her throne:

I had to use up some Fage for lunch today.  I mixed it with pumpkin, flax meal, cinnamon and drizzled with honey.

This made me cold!

The garden seemed to survive the frost.  A few things were nipped by frost.  Some of my mums:

Yellow mums:

The knockout rose bush and sedum.

Coneflowers still blooming.

Here was a little bee that is so lethargic I could touch it.  He will sleep on this flower all night now.

Sentimental bush:

I covered this bush up with a blanket to protect the other buds from frost.

Browalia blooming again.  I am surprised these annuals made it through the frost.

Still looking pretty good for early October.

Latte time! With one of John’s cookies. I have to get John to link to the recipe. I know he found it on Food Network.

Not in focus very well – sorry about that!

We cooked a crockpot meal for dinner.  I might post this one next week. It is teriyaki chicken.  John made the brown rice in the pressure cooker.

I took a post dinner walk.  My neighbors are all decorated for Halloween:

We still need to get out our fall stuff!

Today’s pink picture – my shoes!

A gorgeous weekend coming up and I can’t wait to get on the bike!